My address book has many people in it that I wouldn't want to share my life or details of myself with. Business contacts and acquaintances don't need to know anything more about me than what I share with them in my emails or web sites.
I would much prefer the OPT In setting to have to remember to use an OPT OUT setting for any account I have.

"Of course my other thought is that I'd much rather go back to writing and working with marketing than getting back into IT. "
Have you ever explored working for yourself? Are you a really good writer? Could you market those skills and add to your income outside the company?
Be aware there is competition everywhere right now and quitting a job without carefully exploring your options within and outside the company may not be the best move right now. Lots of suggestions in other replies about how to approach your current manager are possibilities to explore first. Be respectful of the company and yourself. Think carefully about what you really want and how to present your case in a way they understand why you are asking for a raise or help.

This oil spill won't put a dent in what a big oil company will lose in profits or affect the price of gasoline. The amount of oil lost is a drop in the bucket to the company or none at all, because it wasn't producing oil in the first place. The real impact will be felt by the ecology of the ocean and the creatures that live in it and on its shores nearby. And the economic impact it will have will be personal to those that lose their livelihoods that were earned from having clean ocean beaches for tourists to visit, homes to live in and the fishermen that harvested seafood.

Posted
by
Soulskill
on Sunday June 13, 2010 @08:11AM
from the quick-somebody-come-up-with-a-stupid-name dept.

suraj.sun passes along news from Oregon State University, where researchers have discovered a new strain of bacteria that may be able to aid cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. The bacteria "can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive 'rhamnolipids,' and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs — environmental pollutants that are one of the most harmful aspects of oil spills. Because of its unique characteristics, this new bacterial strain could be of considerable value in the long-term cleanup of the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, scientists say." In related news, Kevin Costner's centrifugal separator technology has gotten approval for deployment; now it is only waiting on funding from BP.

Posted
by
timothy
on Saturday June 12, 2010 @09:24PM
from the for-an-honest-day's-work dept.

greymond writes "I was originally hired as an Online Content Producer to write articles for a company website as well as start up the company's social media outlets on Facebook and Twitter. With budget cuts and layoffs I ended up also taking over the website facilitation for three of the company's websites (they let go of the current webmaster). During this time the company has been developing a new website and I was handed the role of pseudo project manager to make sure the developer stayed on course with the project's due date. Now that we're closer to launch the company has informed me that they don't have the budget or staff in place to set up the web server and have tasked me with setting up the LAMP and Zend App on an Amazon EC2 setup. While it's been years since I worked this much with Linux I'm picking it up and moving things along. Needless to say I want to ask for more money, as well as more resources (as well as a better title that fits my roles), but what is the best way to go about this? Of course my other thought is that I'd much rather go back to writing and working with marketing than getting back into IT."